From The Times today, Travel Section, an Article on visiting Suffolk by Sarah Baxter:

“…walking around the well-preserved 12th-century Framlingham Castle walls (£12.50pp; English Heritage).  Mary Tudor was staying here when she heard she’d been proclaimed England’s first queen.  Impressive, though in some ways I preferred the village museum in the castle’s poorhouse, which records Framlingham’s more quotidian history.  Here there was a double-privy, allowing parent and child to defecate together (used until the 1950s) and an old newspaper revealing that, on this day 100 years ago, Earl Soham football club thrashed poor Laxfield United 6-0.”

My emphasis, but who am I to disagree? From: “Beaches, birds and wine: sleepy Suffolk is the perfect place to chill”, The Times, Saturday 22nd April 2023.

Would you like to volunteer for a couple of hours a week over the summer? If so, we’d love you to join us.

The Lanman Museum, based in Framlingham Castle, is looking for Stewards to be in the Museum while lots of friendly and interesting visitors are looking at our displays. If you like meeting and greeting visitors and are interested in volunteering in a fantastic historical environment, we would love to welcome you on board. Full guidance will be provided on the various exhibits.

Sessions are 11-1pm in the morning and 2-4pm in the afternoon, throughout June to September. Our Stewards sign up to sessions on a monthly, fortnightly or weekly basis, so you can do as many or as few sessions as you like, depending on what suits you best.

If you are keen to get involved, please email oliviajclear@gmail.com.

We have been very busy in the museum this year. New exhibits on the Clyde Bell and Queen Mary have been put up and many of the cabinets have been refurbished. This refurbishment is an on-going process. We have recently received a fascinating collection of WW2 artefacts relating to the war time experience of a single individual, the Watling Collection.

From an administrative point of view the Museum is in the process of re-applying for Accreditation. This happens every five years, overseen by the Arts Council, and whilst it is a very time consuming exercise it allows the museum to apply for grants as and when they are available and ensures all policies and practises are in-line with those required.

We are pursuing discussions with English Heritage for access to the museum by local residents without a ticket to the Castle. Potentially it would allow local residents to participate more in the life of the museum.

This website has been considerably redesigned and expanded this year, and has articles on many aspects of the museum displays as well as allowing the collection to be searched, and we would recommend the Instagram feed to all.

As usual we are on the look out for more stewards to show the museum to visitors.